MeKechnie destroys previous best

He carded a 107 on his best day last season and almost every time he teed off Monday he did so with a 4 iron.

None of that seemed to matter, however, as McKechnie beat his previous best score by a mere 22 strokes, finishing with an 85 to lead the Wildcats at the Gardner Edgerton Invitational.

"He has really come a long way," De Soto coach Scott Sharp said.

McKechnie finished 18th out of 90 golfers, but De Soto was 10th in the 15-team tournament as a number of the Cats' best golfers had poor days.

Senior Tim Oswald shot a 95 and Matt Woywod came in at 92.

Sharp said he expects both of the athletes to bounce back.

"Tim struggled, but he still maintained the optimism that he is going to play better," Sharp said. "(Matt) was disappointed with his performance. He had a lot of trouble off the tee, but had a very strong short game. I imagine that this will be his highest score of the season."

De Soto did still fall in the middle of the Frontier League teams competing, finishing fourth out of the seven that were in attendance.

"It is good to see that without anyone playing outstanding, we were still in the middle of the pack for our league," he said.

The Cats head to Eagle Bend Golf Course in Lawrence Thursday, and again, Sharp said he doesn't know what to expect.

The tournament will be a precursor to the league championship which is slated for the same course later this season.

That may be an advantage, Sharp said, but in the past, he's found mixed returns there.

"We will be back to Eagle Bend later this year, which is beneficial because it has historically been a tough course for our guys," he said. "Matt shot really well there last year with an 86, but Tim had the worst round of his high school career there. We'll have to see how it goes."